Waymo pushes back its self-driving truck efforts to focus on ride hailing

Waymo now plans to "push back" its driverless trucking efforts and shift its attention toward its One ride-hailing service. The move will help the company concentrate on making these self-driving taxis a "commercial success," according to co-CEOs Dmitri Dolgov and Tekedra Mawakana. Waymo justified the decision by pointing to "significant" growth in demand for its robotaxis in Los Angeles, Phoenix and San Francisco. The Alphabet-owned brand still intends to work with Daimler on self-driving semi trucks. It's shifting most of its technical development toward Waymo One, but believes work on Driver (particularly for highway driving) will indirectly benefit trucking.